Yoghurt flavor is used for flavoring chocolate, ice, and also as a bulking agent, for various applications.
Yoghurt flavors were conventionally prepared from skimmed milk, which was fermented and spray-dried.
The present invention aims at obtaining natural yoghurt flavor, having the characteristic flavor of yoghurt in a more pronounced and more natural way than in the prior art products.
The present invention is based on the surprising insight that the very superior yoghurt flavors can be obtained from fermentation products of a cheese whey medium or of a fraction thereof.
In the past, cheese whey was considered as a waste product, but nowadays several practical applications have been developed using whey or dried whey. Whey is used as a medium in various fermentation processes for the production of ethanol, lactic acid, methane, single cell protein and lipid. Whey powder as such has found various applications in human and animal food. Its functions in those applications are bulking agent, flavoring agent, or protein enrichment agent, or a combination of these functions.
It is known to ferment whey by lactic acid bacteria for better flavor properties and better digestibility.
Various patents describe the use of whey in dairy flavorings, such as fermented whey butter flavoring (U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,267) and cheese flavors (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,500,549 and 4,675,193). Also yoghurt-like drinks containing whey have been described, which were produced by lactic acid fermentation (Marshall et al., J. Dairy Res. 1982, 49(4), pages 665-670).